Sarah and Timmy

How We Met

Timmy and I met in February of 2012. We were first introduced at an intramural volleyball game at The University of Akron. We had a mutual friend on our team who had asked both of us to join his team. Our team got along really well so every Tuesday and Thursday the team would come back to my apartment and we would all play Rockband or Mario Party. Hanging out two days a week turned into hanging out almost every single day. Timmy and I became best friends quickly and started to get lunch and dinner together. Since we were part of the same friends circle, our friends started to question if we were more than friends. This seemed like a silly question because after all, we were all super close friends. I remember saying to my roommate at the time that I thought Timmy was pretty cute and her laughing and saying she knew something was going on between us.

Timmy went home to Bucyrus for the summer, and I stayed in Green. Even though we were apart, I think it was the most I had ever texted someone before. I think we both knew that our relationship was heading towards being more than just friends, but it was bad timing being and hour and a half apart for four months. When we returned back to school in August, it didn’t take long for us to start dating. We started to date the first day back to school.

Since that day, we have been so happy. We have gone on countless sushi dates and became members at the Akron Zoo where we made a point to go every Wednesday to get away from the stress of school and work. We have visited many states together and even ran our first half marathon in Disney! Not much has changed in our relationship in the sense of him still being my best friend. I continue to learn about Timmy every day and he always makes a point to make me feel special and put a smile on my face.

how they asked

The proposal happened at the Akron Zoo. Timmy and I have been members at the Akron Zoo for a few years now and it has become kind of “our thing” to just go to escape school and work. We had always talked about how fun it would be to go on the behind the scenes animal encounter but had never gotten around to doing it. Timmy had been planning a trip to the Akron Zoo for some time and had bought us tickets to the behind the scenes animal encounters. He had told me that there was a Valentines day special at the zoo and showed me the ticket with the two lions with hearts around them.

Timmy drove us to the Akron Zoo and it just so happened to be the coldest day of the year, so needless to say, we were the only ones in sight. Regardless of the temperatures, we were so excited for the day ahead. When we got there, everyone was smiling and whispering but I just assumed that it was because they were excited that we were going on the animal encounter. Little did I know, that every single person on the staff knew Timmy was proposing to me and that he had been planning it for weeks.

We started our day by entering the holding cells for the otters and I got to do some training tricks with them and we got to see where they stay at night and learn about their behavioral training. We next went to the cat exhibit and right when we walked in, we were faced with two HUGE tigers. They might look big on the exhibit, but they are so much bigger than you could imagine when you are a foot away from them. We also saw the lions and watched them play right in front of us. Our last stop was at the penguin exhibit. We saw how they prepare the food for all of the animals at the zoo. We then went out onto the exhibit where the penguins are.

If you have ever been to the Akron Zoo, we were actually in the exhibit! I was too distracted looking at the ten to fifteen little penguins all around us to notice that Timmy had gotten down on one knee and was holding a box. He asked me to be his wife and of course I said YES!